Postal Workers Battle Difficult Road Conditions, Snow Banks To Deliver Mail

Many residents in the Sachem community didn't get their mail at the usual time these past two days but did report that mail is in fact arriving. All carrier-centered post offices in the community: Ronkonkoma, Holbrook and Farmingville confirmed that trucks are out there delivering the mail.

On our Facebook page, residents reported high marks for the carriers, citing incidents of postal workers trudging through snow to hand deliver parcels.

In our post about the functioning postal service, Jacqueline Morgan Vollmer posted: "OMG!! I have the BEST mailman ever!!! I never expected to get my mail... but I did, and my mailman walked it up to my house because my mailbox is blocked!!! he didn't have to do that for me, but he did...Thank you Wally from Ronkonkoma Post Office!!!"  

Carolyn Weber Weggeland, a Holbrook resident, reported a similar experience: "Our street's not plowed but Vinny from Holbrook office made it down, getting out to put in mailboxes! Thank you!!"

From the sound of it the Ronkonkoma Post Office was getting a healthy dose of calls from area residents holed up at home waiting for the plows. Before a question was asked, a spokesperson at the office inserted, "Every effort is being made to deliver the mail today," in her greeting.

Over at the Farmingville Post Office a spokesperson described the difficult circumstances delivering yesterday's mail, from the inefficiency of the trucks to the conditions of the roads and shoulders.

"I’ve never seen it like this," he said. "For example you go up Adirondack [Drive] and it’s one lane. You can’t see oncoming traffic, and when a vehicle comes down the other way, the carriers are pulling over and getting stuck."

We asked if the mail trucks weren't four wheel drive, but according to the spokesperson they aren't.

"We used to have the jeeps," he said. "But these new trucks are so light
and they're rear wheel drive."

Between the tough sledding of the trucks freeing themselves from the slushy shoulders and carriers getting out of their trucks to hand-deliver the mail, delivery times are much longer than usual.

"Deliveries usually take 10-15 seconds per house," the spokesperson said. "But now they’re taking 25 seconds or so. So if you multiply that by all the houses on a street, it’s really stretching out the day."

A postal worker who answered the phone at the Holtsville office said the area was experiencing the same thing. Holtsville's carriers operate out of the Holbrook office, but according to the postal employee, entire sections of Holtsville were still digging out, and slowing down progress for the carriers.